Charles e



(No Model.)

0. E. SOULE.

CLIP. No. 456,743. Patented July 28, 1891 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

CHARLES E. SOULE, OF NEYV BEDFORD, MASSACHUSETTS.

CLIP.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 456,743, dated. July 28, 1891.

Application filed December 21, 1889. Renewed June 22, 1891. Serial No. 397,027. (No model.)

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, CHARLES E. SoULE, a citizen of the United States, residing at New Bedford,in the county of Bristol and State of Massachusetts, have invented a new and useful Improvement in Clips, of which the following is a specification.

In the accompanying drawings, Figure 1 is a side view of my invention, and Fig. 2 is a plan view of the same.

Similar letters refer to similar parts through out the two views.

The article is composed of one continuous piece of wire, and necessarily of that quality called spring-wire.

The coil or is first formed in the center of the piece of wire. One end of the wire is then brought down and carried around to form the jaw.b, and then alongside of itself, as at d, and then onward and around to form the handlef. The other end of the wire in like manner is bent to form the jaw o and handle e.

The wires, where they lay alongside of each other, as at d and d, are secured together by soldering or brazing.

The device is designed to be used in a variety of ways, such as suspending goods to horizontal cords or rods or to pegs in a showwindow, or hanging up a hat in a church or theater. When used to suspend articles to a cord or rod, 850., the jaws grasp the article and one of the handles is opened out and hooked over the same. In like manner, in hanging a hat in a theater, the jaws grasp the brim of the hat and one of the handles is opened out and hooked over the back of the seat in front or onto some other convenient projection.

By making the jaws out of a continuous portion of the wire instead of out of the end, there is no possibility of bending them, so that a sharp end or point is turned inward to catch upon or damage the most delicate article that may be clamped between them.

Another advantage arising from the above construction is in the simplicity of the device over one in which the position of the jaws and handles were reversed--that is, one in which the jaws were made at the end of the wire and the handles in the continuous portions. In the latter construction the portion of the wire forming the jaws extends from the rear ends of the handles to the jaw or the entire length of the clip, which must necessarily give less power to the grip of the aws than would be the case if the wire only extended from the spring intermediate the handles and jaws, as in the former construction. To obviate this weakening of the power of the clip, it is necesary to give the wire a lateral bend to the rear of the spring and then pass the end of the wire under this bent portion of the wire; but this complicates the con.- struction of the clip to that extent, and even then necessitates the use of a longer wire than is possible in the former construction.

In the clip which I have shown the power or grip of the jaw depends upon the strength of the wire and its length from the spring to the jaw, which need only be such as is required bythe capacity of the clip-that is, by the distance to which the jaws are to overlap the article to be grasped-and by making the coil with its axis at right angles to the wires forming the handles and crossing them, if extended, it will act as a fulcrum for the handles when the jaws are being opened; or by soldering or otherwise securing the portions of the wire together, which extend side by Side from the jaws to the spring, the coil may be dispensed with entirely, and the spring may be formed by bending the wire into a U shape at that point, although I do not wish to confine myself to any particular given construction of this portion' of the clip.

What I claim, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is

A clip composed of a single piece of wire having corresponding portions thereof doubled upon itself and arranged side by side, the continuous end of each of said doubled portions being provided with a jaw and the opposite endof one portion of each of the doubled portions being extended in a straight line and provided with a handle at its extreme end and the other ends of the doubled portions being joined intermediate the jaws and the handles to form aspiral spring having its axis crossing the handles at right angles,substan' tially as described.

CHARLES E. SOULE. Witnesses:

DANL. T. DEvoLL, HENRY W. MAsoN. 

